BiałowieżaBiałowieża [bʲawɔˈvʲɛʐa] (Belarusian: Белавежа
Biełavieža, Lithuanian: Bialovieža, Russian: Беловежская
Belovezhskaya) is a village in Poland, in
PodlaskiePodlaskie Voivodeship, in
the middle of
BiałowieżaBiałowieża Forest, of which it is a namesake. The
population of the settlement is 2,000 (2002). It lies approximately 21
kilometres (13 mi) east of
HajnówkaHajnówka and 66 km (41 mi)
south-east of the regional capital Białystok.

Geographic location[edit]
BiałowieżaBiałowieża is in north-eastern
PolandPoland in the
PodlaskiePodlaskie Voivodeship
near the border with Belarus. The nearest city is Białystok, which is
the capital of the voivodeship.
BiałowieżaBiałowieża is also connected to the
town of
HajnówkaHajnówka some 20 km (12.43 mi) away. The Narewka
river flows through Białowieża.
BiałowieżaBiałowieża is the seat of the administrative district of Gmina
Białowieża, which encompasses an area of 203 km2
(78.38 sq mi) and has a population of 3068 (2000). Other
villages in
BiałowieżaBiałowieża area are Budy, Gródek, Pogorzelce, and
Teremiski.
History[edit]

Before 1426 a wooden hunting manor for king
Władysław JagiełłoWładysław Jagiełło was
built in the middle of the
Białowieża ForestBiałowieża Forest on the Lutownia stream.
It was most probably one of the first permanent settlements in the
area, although the forest was already penetrated by hunters from the
nearby areas and by the king himself who went to hunt there. The
wooden manor was painted in white and became the namesake both for the
future village and the forest (
BiałowieżaBiałowieża means White Tower in
Polish).

Hunter's manor - the oldest surviving building in Białowieża

From 1538 the forest was protected by the laws of king Sigismund I the
Old. However, until the times of John Casimir the forest was mostly
unpopulated. Sporadic settlements were established in various places,
but the manor in
BiałowieżaBiałowieża was the only one to be permanent. In the
late 17th century, several small villages were started for development
of local iron ore deposits and tar production. The villages were
populated with settlers from
MasoviaMasovia and
PodlaskiePodlaskie and many of them
still exist.
After the Partitions of
PolandPoland the local population was turned into
serfs and
BiałowieżaBiałowieża quickly depopulated. Tsar Alexander I
reintroduced the reserve in 1801 and hired a small amount of peasants
for protection of the animals. Most of them were settled in the
administrative centre of the area - Białowieża. However, since most
of the foresters took part in the
November UprisingNovember Uprising (500 out of 502 in
total), their posts were abolished and protection was again harmed.
Yet again the village of
BiałowieżaBiałowieża ceased to exist. Protection was
reintroduced in 1860 and the village was repopulated with Russians.
During
World War IWorld War I most of the local Russian population fled before
the advancing German army which seized the area in August 1915. The
Germans built a lumber mill in Białowieża, connected to the nearby
town of
HajnówkaHajnówka by a railway. However, the village did not recover
until 1921 when the
Białowieża National ParkBiałowieża National Park was established. The
village became the administrative center of the Park and one of the
most popular tourist attractions of the area. Following the
Polish-Soviet War,
BiałowieżaBiałowieża was returned to Poland.
During World War II, after the joint German and Soviet attack on
Poland, the area came under Soviet occupation. In 1939 and 1940 most
of the local inhabitants were arrested and sent to gulags. They were
replaced with Russian forest workers, but in 1941 the forest came
under German occupation and the Russian inhabitants were also
deported.
Hermann GöringHermann Göring planned to create the biggest hunting
reserve in the world there, but those plans were never realized. After
July 1941, the forest became a refuge for both Polish and Soviet
partisans. The German authorities organized mass executions of people
suspected of aiding the resistance. In July 1944 the area was captured
by the Red Army. The withdrawing
WehrmachtWehrmacht blew up the historic
BiałowieżaBiałowieża hunting manor.
After the war
BiałowieżaBiałowieża yet again recovered and became the center
of the re-established
National ParkNational Park in 1947. Nowadays it is one of the
least populated areas in Poland, while at the same time it is one of
the most important tourist attractions in the eastern part of the
country with almost 100,000 visitors every year. The Reserve was
inscribed on the
World Heritage ListWorld Heritage List in 1992 and internationally
recognized as a
Biosphere ReserveBiosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere
Program in 1993.
British historian
Simon SchamaSimon Schama devotes several chapters of his 1995
book Landscape and Memory to a consideration of the historical
vicissitudes of the forests around
BiałowieżaBiałowieża in an effort to
explore the ways in which cultural imagination shapes humans' vision
of the land.
Sites of interest[edit]

BiałowieżaBiałowieża National Park
Palace park (Park Pałacowy) - covering the area of 470,000 m2
(5,059,037.90 sq ft), built in 1890. It is a park in English
style with a large view to
BiałowieżaBiałowieża National Park. Upon the ponds
there is an obelisk for the memory of hunting in 1752 when king
Augustus IIIAugustus III hunted in
BiałowieżaBiałowieża forests. There are also several
tsarist red brick buildings from the 19th century, and a gate which is
the only remnant of the wooden manor.
Ecological Museum (Muzeum Przyrodniczo-Leśne im. prof. Jana
Miklaszewskiego) - museum of natural history
St. Nicholas the Miraculous' Orthodox Church - with a unique
iconostasis from Chinese porcelain.
Open-air folk museum (Skansen) - with original huts, windmills and
wells
PTTK Tourist Service[1]
Nature expert guides (birdwatching, bison and other wildlife
observations) you can find at the
Białowieża ForestBiałowieża Forest website[2]
Graveyard Chapel of St. Cyril (Kaplica św. Cyryla) - from 1873 with
an 18th-century icon.

Notable people[edit]

Gavriil Ilizarov, Soviet orthopedic surgeon, known for inventing the
Ilizarov apparatusIlizarov apparatus for lengthening limb bones and for his eponymous
surgery.
Igor Newerly, Polish novelist and educator, member of the Polish
resistance during the Nazi German occupation of Poland.